"Then keep an eye on those bandits and see if you can get any clues from their conversations."
Qingyan said to Chou Chou.
Chou Chou nodded, "I put some spiritual consciousness over there, but those people were very cautious and didn't say anything.
Now they let the carts pulling things go around the city from the south. You and Jin Yang are staring outside the city with your spiritual consciousness. I want to follow those people and see if I can find their lair. "
Qingyan put her consciousness over to take a look, and sure enough she saw that the vehicles carrying things behind them had gone around.
"You said they blocked the city gate, could it be to cover the departure of those vehicles?"
Qingyan guessed.
Chou Chou used his spiritual consciousness to look into those cars. Whether they had carriages or were piled on the car boards, he even looked inside the boxes and sacks.
"I didn't find anything different, just some gold, silver, cloth and grain."
Okay, you can pass this point, but what is the reason?
At this time, more than half an hour had passed. Almost all the outsiders in the inn in the city had left. It was estimated that only the four of them were left in the city.
The confrontation was still going on outside the city. The bandits did not attack, and the officers, soldiers and young men in the city did not move. They just stood there in a tight formation.
At this time, Jin Yang suddenly said: "The people behind them are quietly retreating to the north. There seem to be people on the north side, and the two parties have merged together."
Qingyan also used her consciousness to explore outside the North City Gate. Sure enough, she saw two groups of people converging together, and then quickly headed north, because those people were riding horses and quickly ran out of the area she could detect. range.
Before, their attention was on the west city gate and they didn't notice the other gates. There wouldn't be someone ambushing outside every city gate, right?
Qingyan mentioned this speculation, and Huang Jin said: "Then could their target be those outsiders who left?"
Qingyan slapped her thigh and said, "It's really possible that they may not have come to invade the city, but the target has always been those who live in the inn.
It's possible that they had explored it in advance. There were wealthy businessmen or things they were interested in. The purpose of siege was to scare those people away.
It is difficult for them to take action in the city, but once they leave the city, it is different. Without the barrier of the city wall and the protection of the officers and soldiers, why not just let them get round and flattened? "
Huang Jin and Jin Yang both nodded in agreement, feeling that Qingyan's guess should be those people's purpose.
Jin Yang said to Chou Chou: "Have you followed them to the right place? I can no longer see them with my spiritual consciousness. I only saw them following the official road into the mountains to the north. I didn't see those people who left before. "
Chou Chou: "They went around to the east and entered a village called Jiaotou Village. Judging from the way they were familiar with the villagers there, that should be their stronghold."
Qingyan and the three of them all looked at it. The stronghold turned out to be a village. They couldn't care less about the officers and soldiers who came to suppress the bandits and couldn't find anyone. It was probably a cover-up to go to the mountains. Their real base camp was a village not far outside the city. This was typical. It's dark under the lamp.
Chou Chou: "You are wrong. Their target is not those who left. Among those who left were their people. The government treasury in the city was stolen. They followed those people out of the city. Before, the north gate and east gate The door inspection was lax and they took advantage of the chaos to leave.
The people who went to the north were not chasing those people, but were there to deal with those who stole the bank.
There was also the village to the west of the city that Qingyan had seen before. The injured were not ordinary people, but official officials who were at home on vacation. "
Qingyan's eyes widened, "So, the reason for making such a big fuss is to steal official silver? Are the previous two times just to prepare for this time?"
Chou Chou nodded, "Yes, I just heard it from the people who returned to Jiaotou Village. They said that the matter is done and the money has been obtained."
At this time, Huang Jin said again: "During dinner before, I heard someone say that wealthy businessmen in Xiangyang and Fancheng donated a lot of silver for disaster relief in Dengzhou, couldn't they all be shipped here? "
The four of them looked at each other. If all the donated money raised in the three cities were here, it would indeed be worth their effort.
"In this case, they can't let them take away the money. They are all used for disaster relief and are related to the lives of many people."
Qingyan said to them.
Jin Yang and Huang Huang both nodded in agreement, while Chou Chou said directly: "It's easy to get the silver back, but do we need to capture those people too?
Now we have two methods. One is that I directly collect the money and put it back in the bank. The guard there just discovered it and hasn't reported it yet. If the money is returned, this matter should be suppressed.
The other one is to wait for them all to return to Jiaotou Village, tie them all up, and then report them anonymously, so that the government officials can go and capture them in one fell swoop. "
Qingyan: "Secondly, since there is a first time, it is inevitable that they will not come again. They dare to touch this disaster relief money, so we cannot let them continue to get away with it. Otherwise, what if we leave and they come again. "
Jin Yang and Huang Huang also thought it would be better to capture them all in one fell swoop. If they only robbed the rich and gave to the poor, or robbed some corrupt officials, they could let them go. This kind of thing could be done by using money for disaster relief, but they couldn't. Appeased.
After the few reached a consensus, Chou Chou continued to stare at them, preparing to wait until they returned to the base camp before taking action.
Qingyan and Jin Yang tried to use their spiritual senses to look eastward, and found that they could not see the location of Jiaotou Village at all.
I can only listen to Chou Chou's description.
"These people should be the young men of Jiaotou Village, as well as the hunters on the back mountain. Except for those who have gone back, all the people in the village are old, weak, women and children.
There are many stone courtyards on the back mountain. They don't look like cottages, but just places where families of hunters live.
There are large cellars underground in the courtyards of those households, with a lot of gold and silver stored in them. This should be where they hide their stolen money. "
In this way, it can be said that if a village is full of bandits, or the neighboring village is full of bandits, then if they help each other to cover up, others will not notice it at all.
When they are busy, they farm and hunt, and when they are free, they block the roads and rob. This is really hard to guard against.
Another hour later, the bandits outside the middle city gate deliberately bumped into the city gate twice. As soon as the officers and soldiers on the city wall fired arrows, they retreated. When it was around three or four o'clock in the middle of the night, those people withdrew. .
Those people left, and the people on the other side of the city gate did not withdraw immediately. Instead, they stayed there until dawn, making sure that the bandits would not come back again, and then withdrew.
At this time, Chou Chou also said that those people had gone back to Jiaotou Village.
Of course, they didn't go back in such a big way, but dispersed and went back in different directions.
The man driving the car took the main road, and along the way he greeted some people who got up early and went out. It sounded like those people often went out for business, and no one would suspect them when they came back from outside.
Those riding horses all circled back from the mountains to the west. There was a valley in the mountains over there, and the horses were placed directly there, with special personnel taking care of them.
The people climbed over the mountain and continued eastward, meeting up with those on foot and returning to Jiaotou Village together.
"So there are people in the valley? How many are there? Are there people in other places as well? Will they all slip through the cracks in the end?"
Qingyan asked Chou Chou and said, these people are really cunning, they are divided into several places.
Also, if you ride all those horses back, it will be obvious at a glance that it is not normal. Not to mention a village, even a wealthy family would not dare to raise so many horses.
Horses are strategic materials and private large-scale breeding is not allowed.
Chou Chou: "I will write the location of the entrance to the valley and the places where those people are distributed in an anonymous letter. Those officers and soldiers should be divided into several groups to arrest them.
Datou is still in Jiaotou Village, and there are people involved in the neighboring Yangquan Village. People in the village should also know about it, but they chose to be complicit and cover up. "
Jin Yang: "Do you need my help? I can go directly over there and take down those people."
To deal with some ordinary people, it can take them down with force alone without using magic.
Huang Jin also rubbed his hands, eager to try.
Chou Chou shook his head, "No, I will just take advantage of them to relax their guard and tie them up one by one with my mind. In the past, it would have been easier for you to scare off the enemy."
The two of them were a little disappointed. They thought they could show off their skills, but in the end they were not used at all.
Qingyan didn't want to do it herself. She didn't like to do it unless she had to. Why bother to put in the effort when she could win.
Chou Chou flashed back to the space. It was in its own space and could use the evil energy inside to restore itself while taking action.
After all, there were so many people, and it would be a big project to put them down one by one and tie them up.
Not only the young men, but also other people in the village must be controlled. Otherwise, are those people stupid and not allowed to let go when they see them?
This will increase Chou Chou's workload, so he has to operate in space.
It's daybreak now, maybe because of last night, the streets outside are not lively and are still deserted.
Qingyan and Jin Yanghuang went downstairs. Apart from them, there were only the shopkeeper and a waiter in the lobby. The other two were not there, and they didn't know if they had gone home.
Fortunately, the people in the kitchen didn't leave, and they still had breakfast to eat.
The special glutinous rice cake and cold kohlrabi that we had for breakfast were delicious, the glutinous rice cake was fragrant and glutinous, and the side dishes were appetizing.
According to the shopkeeper, this kohlrabi is a specialty here. It was created by Zhuge Liang when he lived in seclusion in Longzhong, Xiangyang. It is known among the people as Zhuge Cai and Kongming Cai.
It is crispy, tender and delicious in the mouth, promotes body fluids and appetizers, has a rich sauce aroma, and has the effects of reducing qi and digestion, diuresis and dehumidification, detoxification and swelling.
Qingyan thought she could buy a little more to take away before leaving, so that they could have it with their breakfast and porridge later.
Of course, you should also bring some glutinous rice cakes. You can eat them steamed, pan-fried, stir-fried or boiled.
They didn't ask the shopkeeper about what happened last night. Everyone was in the inn and didn't go out, so the other party might not know as much as they did.
I originally wanted to go out for a walk, but the outside was quickly put under martial law by officers and soldiers.
Someone was beating gongs and shouting everywhere, telling everyone not to go out. There were spies of bandits in the city, and the officers and soldiers wanted to search.
Qingyan raised her eyebrows. This should be a report about the theft of the bank. It's now, and the money has been shipped away long ago. It would be strange to find out anything.
She didn't know what was going on with Chou Chou, and she didn't dare to send a message to ask, for fear of disturbing it and causing something unexpected.
In this case, they had no choice but to return to their room. They were not afraid of being investigated anyway. Except for two carriages and some ordinary luggage, everything valuable was in the space and storage bags.
Of course, in order not to be suspected, he would still put some money in his wallet, otherwise it would be too abnormal.
Soon, the government officials searched the place. There was no other way, because the inn they were staying in was very close to the city gate.
It is estimated that the government also realized the true purpose of the bandits yesterday. The people responsible for searching the city were all government officials, and most of the officers and soldiers were sent out to chase those who left yesterday.
They quickly completed the search. As for their group of guests, the room was clearly visible and the carriage carriage was also checked. Except that they did not leave with them, there was nothing suspicious about them.
After asking why they didn't leave, the government officials left.
They still used the same reason as yesterday. They were going southwest, which happened to be the direction blocked by bandits, so they didn't leave.
In fact, they were not the only ones. There were also some people staying in other inns. Some of them had their destination here and had to finish their errands before leaving. Some, like them, were going to Xiangyang.
After more than an hour, Chou Chou came out of the car space and said: "Everything is done. I have placed the anonymous letters with the general who defended the city and the highest official of the government. It seems that some of them are colluding with the bandits. "
Not long after Chou Chou finished speaking, there was action outside. The government officials who were searching were called back, and a lot of the soldiers guarding the four city gates were also mobilized. There were even more officers and soldiers hurrying towards the north gate.
It was probably time to call back the soldiers who were chasing him. There was no one to chase him to the east. They were going to go in that direction later anyway.
After the people and horses in the city were gathered, they set off to the east. The city gate was still open and no one was allowed to go out, in case anyone came to report the news.
Qingyan followed them with her spiritual consciousness first, then took them back when they were out of reach, leaving Chou Chou to stare at them.
Since we couldn't see over there and staying in the inn was boring, the three of us just went out for a walk. As long as we didn't leave the city, no one would care about them.
They went to buy kohlrabi and glutinous rice cakes, as well as King Kong cake, a specialty snack here.
The kohlrabi was pickled in jars. They bought more than a dozen jars from different stores, and while buying, they found an unoccupied place and stored them in the space.
The glutinous rice cake was very heavy and had to be soaked in water. I didn't buy much, only three big pieces. Anyway, there should be more in the city later. This is a specialty of the entire province, and it's not the only one that has it.
After buying the things, I left a portion on the surface and put it on the carriage, then went to the clothing store to buy a few sets of clothes for Jin Yang. He was wearing the same set now and had no replacement.
